Tag: Revolution

I really enjoyed this book. I was a bit leery at first because I tend to avoid YA – I just can’t deal with all the misplaced and overblown angst – but I’m really glad I stuck with this one. It’s definitely super angsty, and sometimes you just wanted to grab Andi and shake her – not to mention her friends – but it also brought back my own teen years and I remember how everything was absolute and anything could bring on end-of-the-world freak outs… good times -_-

Jennifer Donnelly is an absolutely amazing writer and I adore her prose. She has a gift of drawing you in and then grabbing you and carrying you along more effortlessly than Gaston picked up those French chicks…

The history was fascinating, especially because I dropped the subject in high school and never knew anything about the French revolution except from what I gleaned from the movies Marie Antoinette and Les Mis (no, I didn’t read the book)… Also, there was that one Doctor Who episode, but I believe that was before the revolution so doesn’t in fact count… Anyway, back to the point. I came away from this book with more knowledge and understanding than when I started, and if a book can do that for you, teach you something genuine and interesting and real, that deserves 5 stars in my opinion.

There was a lot going on, and some of it was unnecessary and maybe a bit over the top, but the characters were well rounded and became real in my head, enough so that I could imagine them and feel for them and with them, which is always a good thing. The story was flawless and flowed easy, and by the last page I felt like the story had served it’s purpose and served it well.

I really enjoyed this book. I was a bit leery at first because I tend to avoid YA – I just can’t deal with all the misplaced and overblown angst – but I’m really glad I stuck with this one. It’s definitely super angsty, and sometimes you just wanted to grab Andi and shake her – not to mention her friends – but it also brought back my own teen years and I remember how everything was absolute and anything could bring on end-of-the-world freak outs… good times -_-

Jennifer Donnelly is an absolutely amazing writer and I adore her prose. She has a gift of drawing you in and then grabbing you and carrying you along more effortlessly than Gaston picked up those French chicks…

The history was fascinating, especially because I dropped the subject in high school and never knew anything about the French revolution except from what I gleaned from the movies Marie Antoinette and Les Mis (no, I didn’t read the book)… Also, there was that one Doctor Who episode, but I believe that was before the revolution so doesn’t in fact count… Anyway, back to the point. I came away from this book with more knowledge and understanding than when I started, and if a book can do that for you, teach you something genuine and interesting and real, that deserves 5 stars in my opinion.

I can’t even imagine those times though, when terror and starvation ruled the day and gave birth to cruelty and oppression and madness. I try and really put myself in the revolutionaries’ shoes and still I can’t understand what would drive a person to waltz around with a severed head on a pole and crow in laughter. What would make them lock up and starve and torture an innocent child just for what he represented? And it also makes me wonder what I would have done, on whose side I would have been on, if I had lived in those times… because at the end of the day, if you have to, you can convince yourself that evil is necessary…

There was a lot going on in this story, and some of it was unnecessary and maybe a bit over the top, but the characters were well rounded and became real in my head, enough so that I could imagine them and feel for them and with them, which is always a good thing. The story was flawless and flowed easy, and by the last page I felt like the story had served it’s purpose and served it well.